The Hunter
by foxywox
Summary: He is one of the few memories I have left. He is one of those lucid moments I dream about. It's a shame I have never seen him since I was six years old... SenrixOC
1. Angles and blood

**A/N - So this is my second story on this site and this time it's +Anima! Yeah, I haven't really read them all just, like, the first three... Anyway I 3 Senri and I know there aren't mant SenrixOC stories out there so I though, what the hell, and just wrote this from boredom basically. I may or may not continue with this, it depends on the feedback I get. But thank you for reading this! ~Red**

The day was warm and the town was crowded with people out shopping. The birds hopped about on the floor, desperately looking for food. I watched them quietly, observing their every move. Unaware of my gaze, they continued to hop around, dodging peoples clumsy footsteps. I unfolded my legs and let them drop over the low wall until my bare feet made contact with the floor. I was too poor to afford shoes, or decent clothes. Mine were brown and old, and consisted of a pair of baggy trousers and a long sleeved black tatty shirt, with a brown shirt over the top. At least they kept me warm. My long, red hair crawled down my back as I lifted my head up to stare at the oceanic sky. I could _smell _summer coming, and I was looking so forward to it. I'm a traveller, who moves with the seasons, much like a bird.

One of the birds I'd been watching earlier suddenly flew off, and by instinct the others followed. These are small birds; I see them get nervous alone. They prefer to be with their friends. See, I'm not like _those _small birds. I'm a hunter, I don't need friends, nor do I particularly want any. I travel alone, and live by myself. I get along, barely, but I manage to make a living playing music on my beat up guitar. If I feel like it sometimes I'll sing. Not today though, today I'm feeling too depressed. Today is the anniversary of my parent's deaths...

_Mother, father and I talk quietly in the kitchen, enjoying the spring breeze blowing warm through the door. Father has just returned from training, see, he's going to go to battle soon, very soon. Mother's trying to hide her hurt but she's not concealing it very well. Even I can tell she's upset. I stare out the window and watch as a beautiful red bird circles above the field near my house. Father and I call them the red angels, because they are so pretty. He calls me his red angel too, because of my hair I guess._

'_Look, Papa, it's a red angel!' I beam at him and he joins me to stare out the window. _

'_Beautiful.' He says, but he's not looking at the bird, he's looking at me now and smiling. Even with my father's departure to battle looming over us, it's still a happy day. Mother gazes over us, smiling too. It's a happy day, a very happy day. Suddenly, a knock on the door tears me out of my thoughts. _

'_Ren, why don't you go and get your guitar and play me your song?' My father suggests, glancing at the door. I smile and run to my bedroom to get my guitar. I charge up the stairs and bolt through the familiar door that leads to my room. My guitar sits in the corner of the room and I hoist the strap round my shoulder before stepping back down the stairs. I can hear a lot of shouting, and I can see two men standing in the kitchen, yelling at father. Mother looks very frightened, and she mouths at me to run, but I don't. Then one of the men grabs my mother by her hair and holds a sword to her throat. Father immediately steps towards her. The man presses the blade harder on mother's neck, splitting the skin slightly and letting a little bit of blood drip down her clothes. She lets out a slight whimper of fear. Father's eyes widen and he pleads with the men to leave. _

'_Tell me, Shun, what is that mark on your chest?' The other man grabs father and splits his shirt with his knife, revealing a black tattoo just below his collar bone. It looked very familiar, and I knew I had one similar on my upper back, just between my shoulder blades. Mother and I stood waiting for what would happen next._

'_Stupid demon, your Kim-un-Kir can't protect you here now.' The man spat out before he slit my father's throat. I kept my mouth shut and stepped back. I could begin to smell the blood in the air, and felt tears fill my eyes. I couldn't see beyond them but I knew what was going to happen. Before they kill her too my mother screams out:_

'_REN, RUN!' This time I obey, and run as fast as I can, my guitar still on my back. I can hear the heavy breathing of the man chasing me; he is much faster than me and is catching up as I jump the fence into the field. The long grass is dry and it hurts as my legs brush past it. The red angel still flies above, and takes a brief sympathetic look at me that I can see from the ground. But now the man is near, and he will kill me. I know he will. There is no escape. _

_I am beginning to tire, but I have to keep pushing myself for as long as I can. I think about throwing my guitar to increase my speed but dismiss the thought immediately. Now it's the only memory I have left. The man shows no sign of fatigue, and I know I won't be able to get away from him. I accept my fate and start to slow down. As soon as I do this though, my vision starts to change. My eyes begin to hurt and my back is burning. Somehow I can __**feel **__everything around me, like the trees and every blade of grass. I can see the red angel soaring overhead. I can hear the wind as it rushes through the field, but most of all I can sense the man running behind me, getting very close now. I start running again, yet there is no increase in my speed. My back begins to burn again and I feel something growing from my shoulder blades. The thing continues to grow and soon I find myself somehow flying a few feet off the ground. I rise higher and higher until I know I am safe. I am flying with the red angel now, who is looking at me oddly, but approaches me none the less. I glance down at the man who was chasing me and he stares at me, cursing under his breath. My arms are covered in feathers and my new red wings flap proudly behind me._

_I begin to fly away, not sure where I'm going, but knowing that for now I am safe. I had heard of beings like these, who conceal their secrets, monsters who hide in the dark. But I am not a monster; I am Ren the red angel. _

I have always had my anima, but it had just never been needed before that day. I understand it is unlikely my powers will ever disappear, but I don't particularly mind. Having these abilities allows me to hunt and to escape desperate situations. I don't tell anyone about being +anima, lots of people frown upon our species, just like them men... I learned that there were few people I could trust, especially if I chose to tell them who I am. I know those men are still looking for me, and one day they will come. I feel sick when I think about them, and how they ruthlessly murdered my parents. The attack left me traumatized, so I often start shaking for no apparent reason. I don't know whether it's the memories or the fear, the fear that one day those murderers will kill me too. I don't want to die.

I thought about visiting the Kim-un-Kir, I know my father was one and I remember being there as a child. They were very nice people and they were always very friendly with father. I also remember the boy I met, he was a year or so older than me and the nice Kim-un-Kir people were looking after him. He didn't talk much and when I asked what his eye-patch was for he just looked away. I guess I said something wrong, and I never saw him again after that. He's one of the few people I remember from my childhood. But I don't want to bother the Kim-un-Kir and besides, I don't really know where they are. It would be a lot of effort, even for me, to fly over there.

While looking around I see Rouge, my bird. She's been away for a bit, hunting most probably. She looks down and lands on my outstretched hand. A few people stop and look at her, but who wouldn't. She's beautiful. I smile at her while she looks around observing everyone walking by. She especially watches this young boy, quite a bit younger than me, staring at a crate of apples. I watch him too, and hear him humming this song. I smile, I know this one.

I pull my guitar off of my back and start playing. People near me stop what they are doing to watch, as does the boy. He has very dark hair and I envy his clean clothes, and goggles. I need some of them. He looks up and smiles at me. It's a genuine smile, one which I haven't seen in a while, and I find myself smiling back. He walks closer to me and sits in front of me as I play, still humming. After the song finishes he claps and digs around in his pockets for something. He has this deep look of concentration on his face as he struggles to find what he's looking for. Eventually he pulls his hand out and stretches his arm towards me. In his hand he holds some coins, quite a bit of money actually, enough to feed me for a few days, and maybe even to get some new, cheap clothes.

'No please, keep your money.' I push his hand back. No one's ever been this generous to me before.

'It's fine, you need it more than I do.' He protests and drops the coins into my lap. I smile my appreciation and put the coins into my bag.

'Thank you very much...'

'Cooro, I'm Cooro.' He introduces himself and stretches out his hand again. I take it gently and shake it.

'Thank you Cooro.' He smiles and gets up to leave, just as I stand up to get going too, but turns around again.

'Oh, what's your name anyway?' No one ever asked my name. Caught slightly off guard I stuttered a bit:

'Oh, it's Ren. And this is Rouge.' I gesture towards my bird, who bows her head slightly.

'Wow, she's beautiful.' Cooro stares at her for a few seconds before attempting to stroke her. I widen my eyes, she really doesn't like attention like this and I fear for the boys' fingers. However to my amazement, she allows him to stroke her. I let out a brief sigh of relief.

'She's not usually so friendly with people. She likes you though, Cooro.' I tell him while he still strokes her, very gently though. He smiles and after he's finished Rouge moves up to perch on my left shoulder, she knows she can get heavy on my arm.

'Well, I'd better get going. My friends will wonder where I am." Cooro explains, still smiling. God, he really is a very happy boy.

'Probably, I wouldn't want your friends thinking badly of me.' I say. I didn't really want him to leave. He was a really nice kid and I wouldn't mind having him around for a bit.

'So, where are your friends then Ren?' Cooro looks up at me and asks.

'Actually, I travel alone.' I reply, looking down at the floor.

'You mean, you don't have any friends?' He frowns and looks really sad about this. I couldn't tell if it was genuine sorrow or if he was just being nice.

'Well, no. I don't really need any...' I was cut off by Cooro's startled look.

'Nonsense! Everyone needs friends!' He explains, and I just smile at him.

'I thought you were leaving.' I say. This appears to hurt him slightly and I immediately regret saying it.

'No, I don't mean that in a bad way... It's just...' I try and fail to take back my words.

'It's not that, it's just I don't even really know where my friends are. I just kind of ran off...' I kneel down so I'm now at eye level with him.

'Well I guess I owe you something so would you like me to help you look for them?' I suggest. At least it would get me moving about a bit instead of just sitting on the wall. Cooro literally jumps with joy.

'That would be awesome! And then you could come and travel with us!' He suggests.

'I don't know about that...' But Cooro has already grabbed my hand and is running towards the town centre. I follow him about before stopping him.

'So, where was the last place you saw your friends then Cooro?' I ask, and he thinks for a bit before saying:

'Over by the shops selling clothes and things like that' Cooro explains. I nod and lead him in that direction. Luckily this part of town isn't too crowded as many people are at the market. Cooro and I wander around for a bit, Cooro looking for his friends and me looking through shop windows.

'There they are!' Cooro exclaims and runs towards a small group of children. Well, two children and one older boy. Cooro grabs my hand and runs up to them and I quickly pull my hand out of his.

'What? Don't you want to meet them?' He says frowning at me. I look away.

'I just don't want to bother you anymore is all...' I reply and start to turn away.

'No, wait! Please stay!' He grabs hold of my hand again and tries to lead me to his friends, who are now looking at us.

'Cooro! Leave that poor woman alone!' The young girl yells at him. He surrenders and let's go of my hand, but turns round to say goodbye before walking to his friends.

'Who was that?' Asks the younger boy, and Cooro turns around to introduce me, but I'm already flying high above them. I don't need friends, nor do I want any. I know he was only trying to be nice but I don't want to be someone else's burden. I wanted to stay, very much so, but I'm not like them. I'm not an average human being. I am a +anima.


	2. It's fate

**A/N – So here's another chapter of 'The Hunter', a bit more action in this one. **

**GaBeRock – Yes, Cooro knows she is a +anima so that's why he wants her to join their whole group thing. He kind of tricks her by saying he's lost so she will have to meet everyone. Thank you for your nice comments and I will try and include Kazana! ~Red**

I sat under the tall oak tree in the forest near the town without a care in the world. Well, that wasn't true. I was starting to feel very guilty about leaving Cooro like that, even after he'd been so nice to me. I'd contemplated going back there and joining his group, but I'd decided against it. I didn't want to burden them. I pulled an apple out of my bag, one that I bought with the money Cooro gave me. I took a bite out of it and offered some of it to Rouge. She looked at the fruit, looked at me, and then looked up, disgusted.

'Suit yourself.' I never know if she can hear me or not, but I just like talking to her anyway. It keeps me sane. I continue eating my apple, my back lent against the tree, and the warm breeze blowing through my hair. It was perfect flying weather, but I didn't feel like getting stuff in my eyes right mow. No, for mow I was just going to sit here and eat this apple.

For some reason I could hear voices nearby, which was weird as people rarely come this far into the forest. The voices were that of men and I struggled to make out what they were saying. Being the curious person I am I decided to climb the tree and see for myself what was happening. I perched on the branch that Rouge was on and it swayed a considerable amount, so I used my wings to steady myself. Rouge watched the men too, and I realised they looked very familiar. They both had this symbol tattooed on their arms and for a moment I thought they might be +anima. But the tattoos were exactly the same so I thought it was highly unlikely. They were looking around nervously and I saw they both held weapons. One had a sword; the other had a bow and some arrows. I climbed out of the tree, my wings helping me balance and I grabbed my guitar, fixing it awkwardly over my wings. I knew I should probably get away from these men but I wanted to hear their conversation (I know, I'm really nosey). I silently crept up to a bush and observed them from there.

'This is becoming an obsession Hikai, she's not here.' Said the man with the sword.

'She's got to be! Didn't you hear what that kid was saying about the girl with red wings? Who else could it be?' The other man argued. I wasn't stupid. I knew they were talking about me. I was wondering who these men were when all of a sudden I was rushed back to that day. Realisation hit me, and I did not like it. I knew very well who these men were. My eyes widened in fear and I began shaking. Without thinking, I shot into the sky and flew as fast as I could, not caring for the grit that got into my eyes. I heard the men shouting and knew they had seen me. I looked back to see the one named Hikai equip his bow and a single arrow. It was stupid I know, but instead of dodging I just tried to fly faster. All of a sudden a searing pain shot through my shoulder and I knew what it was. Another arrow whizzed past, gliding up my back leaving a huge open wound and shattering my beloved guitar. My flesh burned and I struggled to fight back the tears of pain. Another arrow, this time hitting my wing and knocking me out the sky. I landed on my back and I cried out in pain as two of the arrows dug deeper into my skin. I somehow managed to get up and pulled the arrows out of my back and wing and ran for my life.

My now broken wing was giving me excruciating pain as it tried to heal. I had my hand on my shoulder and tried to calm the bleeding. The sky had turned a red, orange colour and it began to get cold. Still I ran, aware of both men chasing after me. I was much faster than when I was ten years old but they were still quicker than me. Now not able to fly and my wings slowing me down I had to keep pushing myself to run. I'd cheated Death once, I could do it again. But now the pain was agonizing and I couldn't stand it for much longer. Blood was spilling from my back and I struggled to breath. I ran into the town as soon as I saw the gates, hoping against hope there would be kind people there to help me. However everyone was at home and the streets were deserted. I was leaving a bloody trail behind me and I knew both these men would be able to catch me soon. Using my hunters senses I look around me for the best possible route to escape. Something pulls me down a street that leads into the centre of the town, by the water fountain. I keep running and crying, knowing soon my death will come. I'm still shaking, whether it be from blood loss or fear I don't know. I made it to the fountain only to collapse into a bloody mess on the floor. The men will find me and they will finish me off. At least I won't have to put up with the pain for much longer. At least it will be over.

I wanted to close my eyes but daren't for I fear I shall never open them. It's not my time yet. I still have a few more minutes. My body began to feel numb and I was vaguely aware of Rouge standing on the fountain, cawing insanely. My vision began to blur and I could just about make out this group of kids, one was very tall, walking towards me. A vague glimmer of hope rose in me and my vision began to return. Like the flicker of a candle in a dim room, they continued walking towards me. I tried to open my mouth to speak but I was too weak to even make a sound. One looked up and saw me, lying there. He looked really familiar, like I'd met him before. It was Cooro, who I think was now screaming at me and running over to me.

'No, Ren, please, don't die you have to stay awake, don't you dare close those eyes. We'll get you some help, I promise.' I believe him and every word he says, but I feel the men drawing closer. The older boy runs over too, and I look up at him with pleading eyes that beg for help. Suddenly he looks away and towards the arch in which you enter this area. They're here. He flings his arm to his side and it transforms into a bear claw. Cooro's still talking to me, as is his friend with short silver hair. The girl is staying away however, though I wouldn't blame her. There was lots of blood everywhere. The older boy returns, his arm red with the men's' blood and he takes me from Cooro's grasp. Despite Cooro's words I can't fight the urge anymore. I was so tired; I had to close my eyes. I let them drop, and the last thing I saw was the boy's face that spoke to me from another time.

...

My eyes roll about in my head as I begin to stir from a very horrible sleep. Suddenly my eyes snap open and I sit bolt upright. I'm drought back down again by a firm hand on my chest and a searing pain in my back. I'm lying outside by a small fire in the forest and as my vision comes into focus I see Rouge sitting in the tree above me. I smile up at her, forgetting the pain in my back for a moment. I'm wearing new clean clothes, and I can feel a tight bandage that wraps around my back, chest and stomach. I turn my head and see the boy from before, watching me carefully. I smile at him. He smiles back. I don't know why but he seems really familiar and I just can't place his face. I forget about it for a moment and see Cooro pacing by the fire. The boy turns to follow my gaze.

'Awake.' Was all he said and he gets up to leave. All I know is that I don't want him to, I want him to stay. Cooro runs over to me and lies down right in front of my face and smiles at me.

'Hey kiddo.' I say to him and he smiles. I ruffle his hair slightly and he pushes his head into my hands. He crawls closer to me and curls into a tight ball. I rest my chin on his head and close my eyes. I know sleep won't come to me, but it's worth the try. It's really quiet and all I can hear is the hushed conversation between the young boy and the girl, who had the nice dress. I think they're talking about me, but I'm not bothered to listen right now.

'Thank you Cooro.' He smiles and sighs.

'That's okay.' He whispers. Both of us are pretty exhausted. I open my eyes to gaze at the fire. The older boy's back and he's sitting on a log staring at the fire too. Cooro's humming that song in his sleep and I can't help but feel lucky despite all the pain I'm in. The boy walks over to me and prizes Cooro away from me. At first I resist but then I let him take him and put him to bed. He returns to me and places a hand on my back. I try my best to turn over but need a little help. He very gently lifts my top up and inspects the wounds on my back, stopping when he sees me wince in pain. He gently traces the bandage before deciding that they're fine for now. I roll, very slowly, onto my side just as the boy gets up to walk away. Without thinking, I grab his hand. He immediately stops walking and turns to look at me.

'Stay.' I say, though it comes out as barely a whisper. Still holding my hand he sits crossed legged in front of me, and watches me. I know it was unfair of me to ask him to stay when he'd probably much rather be sleeping, but I just didn't want to be left alone. I look at him too, trying to remember his face. Where have I seen him before? This begins to really bug me and I know I won't sleep until I come to an answer. I look at the boy again, this time properly and analyse his features. Silver hair, kind eyes and an eye patch? Eye patch... bandage... Realisation hit me, and this time it was a good thing.

'Senri?' He smiles again and nods. Talk about short – term memory loss, I'd literally only been thinking about him earlier today.

'Ren.' He says to me. I know it's not a question but I feel obliged to answer. I nod like he did and suddenly I feel a whole lot safer. Realising I'm still holding his hand I quickly let go, but see them start to shake. I close my eyes tight shut and try to block out the pictures of my father's corpse lying on the kitchen floor beside my mother. I try not to see the look of hatred on the men's faces as they slaughter my family. The shaking grows uncontrollable and the fear washes over me in waves of sorrow. I curl into a tight ball and hug my knees right up to my chin. I don't realise it but I'm crying too. My back begins to hurt again from being curved and I really start to cry. Suddenly I'm lifted to my knees and feel arms gently wrap around my waist. I lean my head onto Senri's shoulder, and some of the tears start to subside. He rocks me carefully, aware of my back, before placing me back onto the bed on the floor. This time, he doesn't get up to leave. He stays with me all night, just lying there beside me. Now I feel safe, now I know why people need friends.


End file.
